Jun 10 2008
With kick off for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2008™), the largest football event in the world following the World Cup having just taken place, Europe’s stadiums are set to host thousands of eager fans.
SABIC Innovative Plastics’ high performance Lexan* Thermoclear* sheet is used for the roofs of four renovated or newly built stadiums for the UEFA Euro 2008 football championship, taking place in Austria and Switzerland from June 7 to 29, 2008. These include the Tivoli NEU Stadium in Innsbruck, Salzburg Wals-Seizenheim Stadium in Salzburg, Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt, all three based in Austria, and Stade de Suisse Wankdorf stadium in Bern, Switzerland. Building on a legacy of leading-edge products, SABIC Innovative Plastics continues to push forward with state-of-the-art materials designed to further help our customers to achieve competitive differentiation through new designs, safety, durability and comfort.
Lexan Thermoclear Sheet Used for the Roof of Salzburg Wals-Seizenheim Stadium in Salzburg, Austria.
The Wankdorf facility will feature 4,000 sq. meters of Lexan Thermoclear sheet, and the Austrian stadiums will be glazed with more than 30,000 sq. meters of Lexan Thermoclear sheet. This versatile thermoplastic glazing material, which has been used in arena roofing and other glazing for more than 25 years, delivers a unique combination of advantages in roofing for large, complex structures like stadiums: light weight, high impact resistance, and the ability to be easily formed into compact shapes.
“Many demands are placed upon new sports stadiums and arenas, including safety, comfort, durability, and design excitement,” said Michel van Acht, building and construction industry manager for Specialty Film & Sheet, Europe, SABIC Innovative Plastics.
“By choosing high-performance Lexan Thermoclear sheet, designers and architects can achieve the clarity of glass while overcoming its drawbacks of heavy weight, design restrictions and fragility. The properties of Lexan Thermoclear can be enhanced with special coatings and tints for aesthetics, excellent weathering performance, improved light transmission, and easy maintenance.”
Lexan Thermoclear sheet from SABIC Innovative Plastics is an impact-resistant, multi-wall polycarbonate (PC) glazing material. It features a proprietary surface treatment on one or both sides that provides excellent resistance against degradation from UV radiation, while transmitting visible light very well. It withstands high wind and snow loads, and storms. The multi-wall construction of Lexan Thermoclear sheet also ensures excellent thermal insulation.
Compared to glass, Lexan Thermoclear sheet is significantly lighter in weight while offering high stiffness and more than 250 times the impact resistance to reduce the risk of breakage from wind, hail, and other extreme weather, as well as vandalism. Further, unlike glass, this material can easily be cold-formed into many different shapes and configurations.
Beginning with its first application in a stadium in Split, Croatia in 1979, Lexan Thermoclear sheet has been selected for several Olympic arenas, including the Barcelona and Sydney facilities, as well as six stadiums that hosted the UEFA Euro 2004™ football championship in Portugal.
Lexan sheet glazing materials can help to deliver measurable return on investment through ease of installation; lower insurance costs through resistance to break-ins, weather damage, and vandalism; and less need for replacement due to UV degradation, weathering, and breakage. Most of these products are covered by a minimum 10-year limited written warranty against excessive yellowing, loss of light transmission, and loss of strength due to weathering.
In addition to roofing and escalator enclosures, SABIC Innovative Plastics ‘ Thermoclear sheet products have been used in separation walls, dugouts, balconies, walkway enclosures, and entranceways.